Daily Lumina News 031023

It's a startling number: 1 million fewer undergraduate students in 2022 compared to 2019, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
In this interview, Gallup's Stephanie Marken discusses some of biggest barriers to enrollment, including cost and mental health concerns, plus the strategies to keep struggling learners enrolled.

Phillip Andrew Marx takes care of chickens, ducks, and turkeys in exchange for money to help him graduate college with no student debt. Marx, 34, is one of the thousands of students taking part in the California College Corps program.
The effort allows college students in California to receive up to $10,000 in exchange for 450 community service hours. In its first year, 3,200 students were selected for the program. Of those, 68 percent are Pell Grant eligible, 64 percent are first-generation college students, and 80 percent are students of color.

Many students work their way through college, but often these jobs have nothing to do with their career aspirations. Critics say that the lack of opportunities for college students to learn on the job is a symptom of the larger disconnect between the workforce and higher education.
A new work-study program in California seeks to change that by giving students both an income and a leg up in their careers.

Academic and industry leaders spoke with conviction and passion at the SXSW EDU conference this week about the ways in which colleges, policymakers, and employers might work together to help more Americans find or advance in viable employment, while also addressing the workforce skills gap.
But some “bad” policies and attitudes about online learning undermine their efforts to work together, expand access, and deliver outcomes to motivated, capable learners.

Bard College has become the latest institution to end its cooperation with U.S. News & World Report’s undergraduate rankings, saying they are “based on flawed and irrelevant metrics.”
Bard’s rejection represents another domino falling in the boycott against the rankings system. The Rhode Island School of Design and Colorado College also turned away last month. The rankings exodus began, however, with a contingent of law schools in November 2022, followed by medical schools. Most of the colleges exiting the rankings have cited equity concerns.

College tuition is one of the most costly purchases that students and their families will ever make. Unfortunately, there is no way for them to easily compare financial aid packages so they can figure out how much they will pay at different schools.
The Understanding the True Cost of College Act, reintroduced last week, aims to help by providing clear guidance to institutions about the standard terminology they should use in their financial aid communications.